Data storage devices, such as hard disk drives, are used to store large quantities of data. A hard disk drive includes a magnetic disk or platter that rotates about a spindle. A suspension of the disk drive includes a load beam and a flexure. The flexure may include a metal base made of a thin stainless steel plate, an insulating layer made of an electrically insulating material formed on the metal base, and a plurality of conductors formed on the insulating layer. The flexure includes a portion that overlaps the load beam and a flexure tail that extends toward the back of a baseplate.
A slider is mounted on a gimbal portion of the suspension located near a distal end of the flexure. The slider includes a magnetic head for reading and/or writing data to the media (e.g., the magnetic disk or platter). In addition, the slider may include one or more components to improve performance or increase areal density capacity. For example, the slider may include a spin-torque oscillator (STO), an embedded contact sensor (ECS), or a thermal fly-height control (TFC) element.
The conductors on the flexure carry currents used for writing or reading to a magnetic medium (e.g., a disk). They may also carry currents used to provide power to and/or control other elements residing on the slider (e.g., STO, ECS, TFC, etc.). Thus, first ends of the conductors are connected to elements on the slider (e.g., the magnetic head, STO, ECS, TFC, etc.), and the other ends of the conductors are connected to tail electrodes formed in the flexure tail. These tail electrodes are electrically connected to terminals of a circuit board, such as a printed circuit board (PCB). The PCB includes a signal processing circuit, such as a preamplifier.
Because at least some of the conductors are in close proximity to each other at some points along the flexure, crosstalk between the various conductors is a concern. For example, write-line-to-read-line crosstalk can overwhelm read signals and result in errors. Generally, crosstalk to and from conductors carrying currents to various elements on a slider can degrade the performance of a hard disk drive.
Therefore, there is an ongoing need for apparatuses and methods to mitigate crosstalk between conductors carrying currents to elements on sliders.